The impacts of transitioning to fatherhood on Chinese men living in mainland China: a scoping review

This review explores evidence on Chinese men’s transitioning to fatherhood in mainland China to identify its impacts and related predictors. Due to the complex and broad nature of this topic, a scoping review was selected to carry on a search and explanation of the literature. The search returned 68 articles, and 10 met the inclusion criteria. This review demonstrated that for Chinese men living in mainland China, transitioning to fatherhood can have impacts on their self-feelings and mental health. The predictors were divided into three categories: personal (age, education level and planned pregnancy), environmental (gender of the child, partner’s mental health status, family relationships and pre- and post-natal health education) and occupational (paternal leave). This review proposed suggestions for adapting Chinese men to fatherhood in mainland China.